Good Idea #37: Pintrest

Have you heard of Pinterest?  If you are into design, art, party planning or anything else that wants for inspiration; if you just like collecting images from the web; if you are a blogger; you need to be on Pinterest.  Pinterest allows you to collect all those items, inspirations and good ideas in one spot and categorize them to create your own inspiration boards.  It also allows you to check out what everyone else is pinning and repin their ideas to your own boards.  Every pin saves the link back to the source so you and others will know where all your inspiration came from.  Finally, if you're a blogger, Pinterest makes it really easy to share your pins with your blog readers.  Each pin has a code that you can embed right on your blog and allows your readers to link back to your pinterest account and see where your pins came from!

Check out my Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/twoseekhome

happy pinning!

Good Idea #33: Barn Weddings

Last night we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of our good friend Misha to her partner Tracey.  They were lucky to have beautiful weather for Oregon in mid-May and the ceremony was outdoors among the trees between two lovely old barns.  The ceremony was held inside one of the barns which was lit up by candles, strings of lights and warmed by a wood-burning stove.  Husband and I have a softspot in our hearts for barn weddings because we had one, too.  Ours was in New Hampshire in September, 2009 in sunny but slightly cooler weather.  The ceremony was outdoors overlooking a lake and the reception was held in a lovely old barn on the grounds of a historical Shaker village.

I think a barn is one of the easiest way to have a simple, tasteful, and beautiful wedding.  It doesn't detract from the fancy atmosphere that you want a wedding to have and it provides a warm and lovely setting for both ceremony and reception.  Most importantly, a barn provides interest in itself and requires very little decoration.  A few strings of lights, some candles, or some paper lanterns are all you need.  I wanted to share some photos of both our wedding and the wedding we attended last night.  Congratulations to Misha & Tracey!

Click Here to see all the photos!

Good Idea #29: Color Inspiration

This Friday Joi over at Nuestra Vida Dulce shared with her readers the color paradise that is design seeds.  You may know that husband and I are looking to buy a house in the (we hope) near future.  So there may be a lot of painting and decorating for us in upcoming months.  When that day comes, I'll be returning to design seeds for some serious inspiration!

Visit:
www.design-seeds.com
www.daveandjoi.blogspot.com
www.twoseekhome.blogspot.com

Sweet Home 3D Update

I've been working on finishing up my apartment in Sweet Home 3D and wanted to share the results.  Now that I'm done, if I want to rearrange my apartment all I have to do is move furniture around in the program and see how it looks.  Here are the photos of my finished product as my apartment is now:

Read my original post on Sweet Home 3D or visit www.sweethome3d.com to learn more about it and download the program for free!

Good Idea #23: Sweet Home 3D

This week design sponge contributor Kate Pruitt shared her Top 5 Apps for Design Lovers on My Life Scoop.  One of the five is a free, downloadable room design program called Sweet Home 3D.  This program is so much fun and, once you get the hang of it, very easy to use (I recommend watching the video tutorial first).  You can start from scratch or upload a floor plan of your house or room as a guide.  I found a floor plans for my apartment building on a rental website.  It was a slightly different model apartment, but I only had to measure a few walls to make the corrections.  You can change the wall and floor color, add doors and windows and then start adding furniture.  The furniture database is pretty complete, and you can manipulate the dimensions and color of pieces to match your own.  This is my apartment so far:



It's a bit time consuming to get all the furniture right (I've been at this for a couple hours now and this is as far as I've gotten).  But once you get all the furniture in there you can start having fun.  Has there ever been any easier way to rearrange your furniture?  You could try endless configurations and even move things from one room to another with no sweat.  This will be great for figuring out how furniture will fit into a new place, too!

Speaking of which, did you know that you can find out more about my current place and my hopes to move at my newest blogging endeavor?  Click here!

Good Idea #20: Two Free Projects

We're getting to the point in our lives when we're thinking about buying a house.  The lease on our apartment is up in a few months so in hopes that we might not have to renew we're saving like crazy.  This means we're working on a zero dollar decorating budget.  Here are two quick updates that I did this week without spending a dime:

I am always up for some good shelving.  Unfortunately floating shelves haven't ended up being a priority in our decorating budget.  I decided, money or not, I really wanted a shelf above the little desk that we have in our bedroom.  So I made one out of a cardboard box.  I had a really sturdy shoebox lying around, so I simply cut the end off the cover, angled the corners and covered it with my favorite sturdy wrapping paper from Ikea.  Covering the corners was a little tricky and took some patience, but it's hung pretty high up so you can't see the imperfections.  Of course a cardboard shelf doesn't do much for our book collection, but it makes a perfect little decorative display for some photo mats and a little mahogany buffalo.

I think it adds a little height and interest to the wall over the desk.

We've also had this big blank wall in our apartment for the two and a half years that we've lived in this apartment:

This September we bought two large photographs of Zion National Park for ourselves for our first wedding anniversary.  They came mounted on museum board but not framed.  For the last five months they've been sitting in our bedroom just waiting for a mischievous cat to take a good swipe at them.  Needless to say we've been getting pretty anxious to get them up on the wall, but with no budget for custom framing I had to resort to other methods.  There was no way I was going to ruin the photos or museum board with double stick tape or by sticking tacks through it, so I ended up simply tacking the top and bottom of the pictures with nails:

It ended up working really well and is a great temporary way to get the photos off the floor and fill that empty wall at the same time.

Little things like this freshen up and add new life to a living space and of course save money for bigger and better things! 

And... Click here for four more quick and easy project ideas on ApartmentTherapy.com.

Good Idea #15: Bicyclepaintings.com

I love love love this website.  It has paintings and prints of all sorts of bicycles.  Everything is original and priced for every budget - from $20 to $500.  I can't wait to pick something up from here.

Check it out at: www.bicyclepaintings.com

Good Idea #14: Super Easy DIY Pins

This is pretty much the easiest thing ever and a great use for some old jewelry.  I acquired some clip-on earrings from my grandmother that I loved, but who has use for clip-on earrings?  So I went to Michaels and got myself some pin backs and E6000 multi-purpose adhesive.  I also got some plain pushpins at Home Depot; amazingly, the only place I could find them.  I swear there have to be plain flat pushpins meant for crafting somewhere in the world, but I couldn't find any for the life of me so regular rounded ones would have to do the trick.  It turned out that with the super-thick E6000 glue it wasn't a problem.  I was able to pull the clips off the earrings pretty easily with a pair of pliers.  The rest is kind of a no-brainer, so I won't do a step by step, but here are photos.

 

If you're wondering, the lovely ornaments are from Jackie Bos.  Find similar items in her etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/jackiepeppermint

Good Idea #11: DIY Dresser Makeover

Update:  July 6, 2011

Thanks for visiting These Good Ideas!  My husband and I recently bought a house and I've since transferred most of my writing energy over to our new joint home-owning blog.  If you want to see more of my designs, DIY projects and good ideas check out the new blog:  www.twoseekhome.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!

Original Post:

This dresser makeover has been a long time coming.  The dresser is a thrift store find, and while it is in good condition, it's not the highest quality construction.  Over the three years that I have owned it, the bottom of the top drawer has warped and broken free of the rest of the drawer, leaving my delicates free to wander out into the depths of the back of the dresser.  Our attempts at fixing this problem include both packing tape and slightly more successful gorilla tape, and finally some drawer organizers that simply kept small items contained rather than wandering free in the still sagging drawer.

Recently, however, a few things happened that moved my dresser makeover along a little bit.  First, the second drawer of the dresser broke completely.  The back of the drawer fell clear off, leaving no support for the flimsy bottom or the clothes contained therein.  Then I came across an old DIY tutorial on Design Sponge describing how to construct drawer dividers out of cardboard (click here to see the article).  While I was not in need of dividers, I was inspired by the suggestion to cover the bottom of the drawer with wrapping paper.  This was just the motivation I needed to pull those drawers out and get fixing.  Furthermore, I recently inherited some jewelry from my grandmother who moved out of her home a few months ago.  This left the top of my dresser in disarray and in need of organization, so I figured I might as well find a fix for that too.

Keep reading to see my full dresser fix-up and clean-up project and for some helpful tips.

Holiday Recap

I may be a bit late on this, but I just couldn't wait until next Christmas to share all these holiday memories and ideas.  So here is what my Christmas and New Year season looked like, along with a few good ideas to stash away in your stocking until next year:

Leavenworth, WA 

 

Our Christmas season began with an early-December trip to Leavenworth for the annual Lighting Festival.  The residents of this little Bavarian village nestled in the mountains of central Washington deck the whole town in lights, line the streets with fire pits and open the doors of shops full of candy, clothing, home good and novelties to Christmas shoppers. 

If you're in the Northwest during the holidays, Leavenworth is a fun and festive way to get in the spirit. 
To learn more about Leavenworth, visit www.leavenworth.org

Holidays Around Here

This year we went for simplicity in our holiday decorating, focusing on natural elements and neutral colors.  I went a little green, re-purposing paper bags from holiday shopping as wrapping and chose the rest of my wrapping paper selection to match.  My favorite new addition to my wrap collection this year was heavy weight black and brown paper from Ikea.

These holiday penguins were hand-made by my very talented mother.  She sent them to us along with the hand-made Christmas trees that you can see above the gifts in the first picture the first winter we lived in Oregon.  They have made an appearance ever year and will continue to for many many more.

This leather Zuny reindeer is one of my most prized Christmas decorations.  It is actually a memo clip (the head is attached to the body by a magnet) and the movable head makes it all the more adorable.  Zuny has an amazing line of leather animal home accessories that are beautiful, sometimes useful and will brighten up any home.  Go to http://www.zuny.info/

Keep reading to see more of my natural Christmas scheme and more holiday adventures!

Good Idea #10: New Year's Resolutions

I mentioned before Thanksgiving that I wanted to Take Advantage of the Holidays this year and I think I've done a pretty good job.  At Thanksgiving I kept track of the things that I am thankful for, at Christmas I gave, although there is always more we can give, and now at the start of the new year I'm making some resolutions.

1. Watch less television.  We don't even have cable, and I still manage to watch hours of TV on some days.  Now mind you, this isn't the sitting-around-staring-at-Judge Judy-doing-a-whole-lot-of-nothing kind of TV watching we're talking about here, but it's not much better.  I think I've just become accustomed to the sound of voices in the house, especially when I'm home alone.  The problem is, whether it's The Today Show, reruns of I Dream of Jeannie or the news, it can be distracting.  Especially when your daily chores are things like laundry, dishes and vacuuming it's easy to procrastinate when Matt Lauer is talking about dog wardrobes for winter.  So this year I'll be leaving the TV for movie nights and other such special occasions and, I hope, getting a whole lot more done.

2. Save more money.  I hope that in the near future I will be able to quit barista-dom once and for all in the interest of focusing on writing, school and family.  However, choosing to enter the world of the starving artist takes a little practice.  Living off one salary will be a little bit tight, and if we want to continue saving for a house it will have to be even tighter.  So with my new found time from watching less TV, I will plan our budget more carefully, clip coupons and hunt for bargains.  Save more money now, worry less later.

3. Read more.  For someone with a degree-and-a-half in English (yeah, that's right), my Goodreads list is pretty pathetic.  To make matters works, Portland has pretty much the worlds best bookstore and I've had very little opportunity to take advantage of it.  But, in the interest of resolution #2, I'll start by reading all the unread books I've collected over the past few years and go from there.

4. Write more.  I want to be a writer, so I should probably be writing... right?  Yeah, probably.  I've been saying for a while now that the key to writing is to do it every day.  Well, what better time than the new year to start sticking to it.

5. Be more conscious of what I eat.  This isn't a weight-loss kind of thing, but rather a health kind of thing.  When your second resolution is save more money, eating nothing but pasta and potatoes sounds like a pretty good idea.  Fresh vegetables, lean chicken and fish, not so much.  But there must be some kind of balance and I aim to find it.

6. Exercise more.  When you pull a muscle reaching for something on the top shelf, you should probably be taking advantage of those yoga dvds you have lying around.  Just saying.

7. Leave the house every day.  I have this problem where I REALLY like being at home.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to like to be at home; the home should be a sacred space.  But leaving the house at least once encourages things like exercising and socializing... and putting on real clothes. I think these are good things to aspire to.

8. Learn more about design.  I've always had an interest in design, but for some reason it has never occurred to me that I could do anything with it other than redecorate my bedroom.  This year, I plan to make a full-blown hobby out of it and if it takes me nowhere else, at least I will have the most awesome house in town.

9. and 10.  I don't want to jinx it.  All I'm saying is, if I stick to these resolutions 2011 will be a very good year.

Good Idea #9: Design Sponge

I just discovered a great website. Since Grace Bonney began her blog in 2004, Design Sponge has squeezed out much more than just design advice. Along with several contributors, Bonney supplies readers with everything from recipes to gift ideas to diy projects to current trends and even a brilliant guest blog. It's really everything a blogger could hope to aspire to and is an awesome inspiration for so many parts of life.

Check out Design Sponge now at:

www.designspongeonline.com

Good Idea #7: Use What You Have

Just a little decorating idea.  A few weeks back, with fall in full swing and Thanksgiving approaching I wanted to spruce my place up appropriately.  Unfortunately my income is currently allocated to other uses (namely Christmas travel and gifting) so I couldn't go out and buy a bunch of stuff.  So I looked at what was available to me.  I put a few gourds we had purchased along with all the fruit and vegetables I happened to have around in a basket and created a very decorative fall "bounty."  I went out and picked some dried grasses that were growing outside my apartment and put them in vases that I already had.  I added twigs and more grasses to fill out my bounty.  I put dried berries that had fallen off a bunch that I bought at the farmers market in a glass bowl.  I barely spent any money, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

I think the main good idea here, besides taking the trek outside and getting stuff for free, is this:  Items have a greater impact when they are grouped together.  A few stray gourds, some grass and some berries might not seem like a whole lot of holiday decoration, but when you put them all in basket, or put a vase and a bowl of berries together with another natural element (like a bowl of collected wine corks) they are more noticeable and therefore make a bigger statement.